'A Reality Check for the King'! Tom Hanks not stereotypical about Muslim world anymore

Published May 23rd, 2016 - 09:32 GMT
The Hollywood actor says that his views have changed after shooting his controversial film in the Arab world. (blogs.indiewire.com)
The Hollywood actor says that his views have changed after shooting his controversial film in the Arab world. (blogs.indiewire.com)

Hollywood actor Tom Hanks says he used to have a stereotypical view toward Islamic society when he shot a film in Morocco 10 years ago.

The actor now says that a decade on, his stereotyped view of Muslim countries has changed after filming parts of his 2016 movie “A Hologram for the King” in Morocco and Egypt.

“Ten years ago, we shot some of Charlie Wilson’s War in Morocco. I had never been to a Muslim nation before. I was a white, western American and I assumed that every time the muezzin called the faithful to prayer, everybody shut down and went to their local mosque. Some did but really there was no change whatsoever. A huge stereotype was busted just like that.”

Hanks plays "Alan" in “A Hologram for the King”: An American "IT salesman in the wake of a messy divorce, dispatched to Saudi to sell a virtual-reality system in a city that hasn’t yet been built by a king notable by his absence. Stranded in the desert, penning plaintive missives to his daughter, Alan starts to unravel, blaming his woes on a growing lump on his back, which comes to symbolise his inner sickness," as described by The Guardian.

“All of that helped me to internalize Alan’s sense of alienation, because we were so far removed from anything that was recognizable to me as an American.”

Perhaps Hanks doesn't see the Middle East for the way it is stereotyped in Hollywood films, such as Sex and the City 2, and Rock the Kasbah, but his new film has been criticized for portraying the Arab Muslim world in exactly the same way it's always been by Hollywood: Either as a primitive desert or as flashy and minted like Dubai.

Filmmaker Faisal Hashmi says the region is either portrayed as “a war-torn ultra conservative one littered with armed men, women in burqas, men wearing turbans, and the overall city feeling like it's in some sort of constant lockdown” full of “stern and humourless men” with a “general populace that is wary and distrustful of Westerners.” Or as if it is “Las Vegas of the desert – fancy sports cars, hotels, scantily clad models, rich people everywhere in the most exclusive fancy parties.”

So why did Hanks approve of a script filled with stereotypes if he really doesn't believe in them?

While Hanks said that his “job is to steer away from stereotypes,” it wasn't surprising to learn in an interview with Radio Times that he is a supporter of US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

In the interview, Hanks ruled out the possibility of Clinton's competitor Donald Trump making it to the White House - actor George Clooney and his wife Amal have the same prediction as Hanks.

Click here for a full review of "A Hologram for the King" by The Independent.

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